find their way to distant markets through irregular channels, more especially over the borders of British Columbia. This fur-trade is open to all, but requires capital, organization, and persistency to make it profitable. The natives do nearly all of the hunting and trapping, and will only engage in it, as a rule, to supply themselves with means to procure certain luxuries from the trader’s store, such as sugar, tea, and tobacco. We are sorry to add to these comparative necessities the article of whiskey, which is only too often furnished illicitly to the eager natives. When these wants are supplied they idle away their time until stimulated once more by their necessities to go upon the trail of the fur-bearing animals. Of course there are some exceptions to this, many of them being steady and willing workers, but we speak of the average native. There is no fear of the supply of furs being exhausted under this system of capture; even a combined and vigorous effort on the part of the hunters could not accomplish that in many years. Unlike our western Indians, these Alaskans are a comparatively thrifty race, entirely self-sustaining, and never require support from the government, notwithstanding idleness is their besetting sin, as is, indeed, characteristic of uncivilized people everywhere. We were told of several of these aborigines who had learned the lesson of thrift from the whites to such good effect as to have saved sums of money varying from one to five hundred dollars, which they had deposited in the Savings Bank of San Francisco, and upon which they drew their annual interest; an investment, the safety and economy of which they fully appreciated. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XII. Climate of Alaska.—Ample Grass for Domestic Cattle.—Winter and Summer Seasons.—The Japanese Current.—Temperature in the Interior.—The Eskimos.—Their Customs.—Their Homes.—These Arctic Regions once Tropical.—The Mississippi of Alaska.—Placer Mines.—The Natives.—Strong Inclination for Intoxicants. It is a well-known fact, proven by official observations, that the climate of the Pacific coast is considerably more temperate than that of the same latitude on the Atlantic side of the continent. The record of ten consecutive years, kept at Sitka, gave an annual mean of 46° Fah.